290 
POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
different scientific men, and wliicli is almost certain to constitute the work 
which must for ages he regarded as the most exhaustive biography of a 
man whose life, save as a savant^ is really worthless, is, to some extent, 
uncompleted in its English edition. Eor we believe that though a great 
many may be glad to know something of so eminent a philosopher, 
yet very few will devote themselves to the perusal of these two 
large volumes, save those who are either working at, or interested in, 
science, and to these readers no part of the volume could have been less 
wisely omitted than the portion which pre-eminently gives the subject 
of the Biography everything that so clearly distinguishes him from his 
fellows. 
But on no other score can we raise objection to the labours of the English 
translators, who have discharged their task with an ability of no common 
•order, and a keen discrimination between the duties of translating and 
of rendering into English. The first volume is from the pen of Herr 
J. Lowenberg, and deals with the earlier history of Von Humboldt. It 
treats of him from his birth at Berlin, through his childhood, to his 
•experience of college life and his first attempt at an official existence and 
diplomatic service. Then comes the death of his mother, a sketch of the 
state of society in Weimar and Jena, and a tolerably long account of his 
connection with Goethe and of their disagreement, and of Goethe’s subsequent 
recantations of his earlier opiuions. In the next chapter we are supplied 
with long accounts of his travels in Asia and America, which are decidedly 
of interest. Here, also, we have a sketch of his landing at Teneriffe, a 
point at which he made those remarkable observations as to the close rela- 
tion between latitude and height as to animals and vegetables. Next we 
lare treated to his account of his wonderful journeys to the Orinoco, Cuba, 
and Quito, in the last of which occurs the expression of opinion as to the 
impressiveness of mountain scenery. It is in this chapter that Von Hum- 
boldt so vividly expresses his opinion of the effect produced upon him by 
Chimborazo, which he describes as the most interesting mountain in the 
world, and, to him at least, the most impressive from the colossal character 
and striking nature of its outlines. Having described his adventures in 
Quito, the writer then passes on to his stay at Mexico, and his explorations 
into the Carib and Inca languages. In this part of his journey Baron 
Humboldt likewise makes some valuable observations on the subject of 
guano as a manure ; then he travels on to the United States, and stays 
some time with Jefferson at Washington, visits certain other of the States, 
and eventually returns home, after an absence of no less than six years. 
Some time after this comes the fall of Prussia, for which he consoles himself 
by the severe study of Nature, and after a time he studies Asiatic languages, 
preparatory to a journey eastwards, which he eventually undertakes. He 
intends pursuing his investigations in Asia, but other engagements prevent 
him, and so, having travelled to Moscow and St. Petersburg and journeyed 
through the Ural Mountains, he once again returns home to receive the 
honours he had so fully and thoroughly earned. And it must not be sup- 
posed that all these undertakings took but a short space of time : contrary 
to this they — while here only partially stated and in the merest outline — 
■occupied the best portion of his working life. On his rettrrn from the Ural 
